To read this content please select one of the options below:

Alibaba strategist Ming Zeng: “Smart business” in the era of business ecosystems

Strategy & Leadership

ISSN: 1087-8572

Article publication date: 8 March 2019

Issue publication date: 1 April 2019

2690

Abstract

Purpose

Alibaba strategist Ming Zeng explains how the company operates its “smart business” in the era of business ecosystems

Design/methodology/approach

Alibaba today presents a vivid picture of the new business world emerging, one that operates using the data generated by the network of participants, as processed by machine learning, to automatically respond to customer behavior and preferences in real time.

Findings

At Alibaba link after link in the value chain is being modularized and reconfigured into technologically optimized networks and much of business decision-making is powered by algorithms.

Practical implications

Creativity becomes the crucial productive factor and thus the purpose of an organization is to enable, rather than manage creative people.

Originality/value

<abstract_text>In the emerging world of “smart business,” entrepreneurs and strategists must learn to assess the entire network as a whole when deciding how to position their business and create value. Then the strategy making process is one of generating, coordinating and modulating experimentation

Keywords

Citation

Leavy, B. (2019), "Alibaba strategist Ming Zeng: “Smart business” in the era of business ecosystems", Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 47 No. 2, pp. 11-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-01-2019-0006

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Related articles